Another meaning for Timing is Everything

The first issue I’m really running into is time.

While I want to work on this, I need to balance my life so I don’t get overloaded.  I’ve done that before and I know it’s not good.  I read a quote once from …. About how he’d put so much of his life into his projects and that maybe it was time to make a family his next project.

I don’t want to think of family and friends as projects, but as part of my normal life.  So I’m trying to break the entrepreneur mold and fit the work I need to do into my normal hours.  I could easily stay up late or wake up earlier, but I know it will take a toll on other aspects of my life.  And I’m not willing to do that right now.

Even with this issue, I did manage to get a couple hours of time in yesterday.  I decided to concentrate on some more products that I want to feature, instead of the copy for the website that I need to do, or any of the other planning.  I will aim to finish the products tonight and then spend the rest of the week getting the site and my plans together.

And that sounds like a plan.

Where to start?

I should be well on my way to 30 sales right now.

But I'm not.

I have gaps in the website that need to be filled.  Pictures and descriptions are missing.  And while I would be comfortable with advertising the site without descriptions, I need to make sure the pictures and text about the site are correct.  If I want search engines to find me correctly, I need text for them to index.  I need to make sure the pictures are labeled and named correctly so they will come up in searches too.  It will also help me to organize all of my products on my computer when I need to change things.

The rest of this week looks more like housekeeping and other administrative duties.  Nothing that will kick start my journey, but the slow start I need to make sure I get there.

And don't get me started on my incomplete marketing and business plan.

Thirty

The challenges I pose to myself are supposed to push me in some way that results in a benefit, whether it be mental or financial.  For this 9 week challenge, I'll be aiming for both.

I am in the process of launching an apparel site.  I have never done this before, but I have a lot of passion behind my idea.  Since the site is almost finished and I already have many products lined up, the time has come to start selling.  The challenge for me is that I am not a salesman or a marketer.  I have knowledge of both fields, but I do not hold any delusions that I am either.  Nevertheless, over the next 9 weeks I am challenging myself to make 30 sales.  Not 30 items (so it could be more), and not to family members or friends.  I'm going to refrain from even mentioning the site here until I either reach the goal or it's near the end of the quest.

You may be thinking that 30 does not sound like a lot, and you're right.  It is a small number and yet a number so large that it terrifies me.  I have to find 30 strangers and convince them into buying my product.  The product may sell itself, but I still have to present the product into the marketplace, and that is where this becomes a challenge.  And since I have a full time job, this will be done on spare hours.

The real challenge is for me to document what I do and how it does or does not work.  I am not sure how often I will be posting, but I will strive for everyday that I do something with the product or its website.  I'll be working in some social media as well, so I will track that.  Again, I will not be advertising the site until later, so I'll give as many specifics as I can without giving it away.

Amazing how a number can seem so minuscule and so colossal at the same time.

Gearing up

I have an idea for my next 9 week challenge and it will be a good step outside of my box.  I'm hoping to start it in early August, so it will run into October.  I'll have measurable goals, that I'll be able to adjust upwards throughout the challenge.  I will not announce exactly what it is until I start, but I'm excited to have a new goal that will push me in new ways.

More than portals to the world

Panes of glass have allowed humankind a material for physical and philosophical utilization.  We look through them.  We are seen through them.  Some are colored.  Some distort views.  Finding quotes over the past 9 weeks have allowed me windows into different points in time.  So the last theme for this challenge is windows.

“Many a doctrine is like a window pane. We see truth through it but it divides us from truth.” - Kahlil Gibran

“A house without books is like room without windows.” - Horace Mann

“I need no dictionary of quotations to remind me that the eyes are the windows of the soul.” - Max Beerbohm

 “Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.” - Mark Twain

 How do you use windows?

Eight hours a day

Another week at work is done.  And a busy week it was.  So today we'll look at work.

“One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important.” - Bertrand Russel

“In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: they must be fit for it; they must not do too much of it; and they must have a sense of success in it.” - John Ruskin

How has your work been lately?

Well spoken

I have tried not to use my favorite authors too much.  For the author below, I have already used two quotes, but have not dedicated a post to him.  I started readying him in high school and, good or bad, he taught me to look at life from different angles.  I may not have always agreed with his point of view, but I had to respect it for what he taught.  I dreamed of meeting him one day.  I doubted the conversation would be intellectual, from my side at least, but I was hoping for the chance to see.  So when he passed in 2007 I realized I had met him through his numerous works which I had read, and that would be the part of him I took forward in life.

"Where is home? I've wondered where home is, and I realized, it's not Mars or someplace like that, it's Indianapolis when I was nine years old. I had a brother and a sister, a cat and a dog, and a mother and a father and uncles and aunts. And there's no way I can get there again." - Kurt Vonnegut, "The World according to Kurt" in Globe and Mail [Toronto] (2005)

What point in time is home for you?

Come again another day

I'm fairly surprised I haven't written about this yet.  While I've done some posts about weather, I have not done one about the little droplets of water that fall from the sky.  Today started off nice and chilly, but within a few hours, the rain clouds came and have not let up for long.  While looking for quotes on this, I started to love the dual meanings.  So here are three quotes to ponder.  Try to link them to aspects or people in your life.

“The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain.” - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.” - G. K. Chesterton

“Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet.” - Roger Miller

Do you walk in the rain or get wet?

 

Tear down that wall

Language, cultural, political, geographical, technological...we come across barriers throughout our daily existence.  Within the past two days, 4 out of those 5 have created conflicts for me.  After reading the quote below and thinking about it, I do wonder if both sides need to create the barrier or if it is one sided at times.

“There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.” - Ronald Reagan

Have you put up any barriers lately?

Nighty night

My sleep patterns have been off a bit lately.  I get sleep, but at different intervals and with various results.  I'm still working on finding the right formula.

“Turn resolutely to work, to recreation, or in any case to physical exercise till you are so tired you can't help going to sleep, and when you wake up you won't want to worry.” - B. C. Forbes

How has your sleep been?

Gossip has it

True or false, I've been subject to my fair share of rumors throughout life.  We rarely are the cause of them and rarely have control of them.  And the speed at which they can be communicated is staggering.

“Trying to squash a rumor is like trying to unring a bell.” - Shana Alexander

Have you ever succesfully squashed a rumor?

 

Activity in the mind

I've seen two movies today where insanity is a theme in them.  In both, the heroes are not really insane or break beyond it.  So it seemed appropriate to find a quote for it.

“Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtaxed.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes

 Is your mind overtaxed?

Every which way

No theme for today.  Just an amusing one going into the weekend.

“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.” - Friedrich Nietzsche 

Which is your way?

 

Kind to all

A neighbor was having work done on their building at 7am this morning.  In my area, that is not uncommon.  The workers try to start as early as they legally can so they can move on to the next job and get home early to repeat the next day.  The problem was that the tenant of the building was not told by the landlord that work was going to be done.  Instead waking to the sound of their alarm clock, it was the sounds of a ladder being banged around and excessive cursing, and I do mean excessive, that stirred them.  Some times a little courtesy can go a long way.

“Courtesies cannot be borrowed like snow shovels; you must have some of your own” - John Wanamaker 

What lack of courtesy have you seen lately?

Not the phoenix

“I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.” - Jack London

Do that thing you do

Numerous times throughout the year and in various locations on the globe, people do things that they did the year before.  Many times, they're not really sure why they're doing it.  They saw people doing it last year, thought it looked interesting, and wanted to join in this year.  Some by peer/family pressure.  Some by themselves.  But year after year, town after town, house after house, people are bringing life to something from the past.  So today, when a certain celebration is going on throughout the world, let's take a look at traditions.  And for good measure, a funny by Mark Twain at the end.

“Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around.” - G. K. Chesterton

“What an enormous magnifier is tradition! How a thing grows in the human memory and in the human imagination, when love, worship, and all that lies in the human heart, is there to encourage it.” - Thomas Carlyle

“Often, the less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it.” - Mark Twain

What traditions do you do that are hard to justify?

Fascination of life

 The dichotomy of life.

"Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating. " - Karl Von Clausewitz

 Which do you find more of in your life?
 

One missed

I forgot to post an entry yesterday.  I think I thought about it in the morning and then became so consumed with my day that I didn't do it.  This has happened a few times this past week where I become busy with things and forget an event or deadline.  I had the time yesterday.  At one point I was on my computer for a good twenty minutes, but did not remember to get a quote.  I could also cheat, backdate a post and be able to complete the 9 weeks intact, but that would not be true to myself.  So today's quote is on forgetfulness.

“Through memory we travel against time, through forgetfulness we follow its course." - Joseph Joubert

Have  you been following time recently and forgotten something important?

Gasping

Some friends have been feeling a bit anxious about aspects of their lives lately.  Whether we know it or not, I think anxiety hits all of us at some point in our life.  So today is a look at that.

“Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.” - Soren Kierkegaard

“Our Age of Anxiety is, in great part, the result of trying to do today's jobs with yesterday's tools.” - Marshall McLuhan

Which makes you more anxious, your social or work life?

To laugh

This day has unexpectedly been filled with humor at random turns.  And I appreciate that very much.  So today I won't quote jokes, but we'll talk about them.  OK, the second quote may be a joke, but I think it's a fact as well.

“The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible.” - David Ogilvy

“A civil servant doesn't make jokes” - Eugene Ionesco

“A joke is not a thing but a process, a trick you play on the listener's mind. You start him off toward a plausible goal, and then by a sudden twist you land him nowhere at all or just where he didn't expect to go.” - Max Eastman

Had any unexpected laughter today?

Building on yesterday

The day after meetings tend to provide more entertainment.  People dissecting every move and word from other attendees.  This can go on for days.  It helped fuel today's quote.

“In some situations, if you say nothing, you are called dull; if you talk, you are thought impertinent or arrogant. It is hard to know what to do in this case. The question seems to be, whether your vanity or your prudence predominates.” - William Hazlitt

Vanity or prudence?

Tick Tock

Meetings are always an adventure.  People come into them with different ideas of what the agenda really is.  Throughout, people talk, give looks and act in all sorts of ways.  In the end, some people will think it was worth while, as others think it was a waste of time.

“When I give a lecture, I accept that people look at their watches, but what I do not tolerate is when they look at it and raise it to their ear to find out if it stopped.” - Marcel Achard

Had any watch looking meetings lately?

On cue

Just as movie editors know how to combine a scene with a music track to evoke emotion, life can match two elements that bring forth an emotional response.  Like how hearing the right song first thing in the morning can get the rest of your day going great.  Or the opposite.  So today we're looking at timing.  And try to look at this quote beyond it's military meaning.

“You win battles by knowing the enemy's timing, and using a timing which the enemy does not expect.” - Miyamoto Musashi

How is your timing with events in your life?

A rustle in the trees

 The wind yesterday was something we haven't seen in a long while here.  Something oddly comforting to hear the wind rustling through the trees.  Especially in the middle of winter with no leaves on them and a light snow blowing through.  So today's theme is wind, but with a motivation twist and from the 1st century.

“If a man does not know what port he is steering for, no wind is favorable to him” - Seneca

Do you know what port you're headed for?

Making up words

A quick, fun one for Saturday.

“If the English language made any sense, lackadaisical would have something to do with a shortage of flowers.” - Doug Larson

What are some words that can have fun meanings if taken literally?

Light bulb moments

In work and personal life, ideas have been created and thrown around at an increasing pace lately.  Some big, some small.  Some have already burned out while others have promise.  While looking for quotations about ideas though, it became clear that many people talk about the idea of something and not an idea as a thing itself.  Below I have put together a few quotes that discuss idea itself.

“An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.” - Oscar Wilde

“Everyone is in love with his own ideas." - Carl Gustav Jung

“If you want to kill any idea in the world, get a committee working on it.” - Charles F. Kettering

“Nearly every man who develops an idea works it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then he gets discouraged. That's not the place to become discouraged.” - Thomas Alva Edison

“If you have one good idea, people will lend you twenty.” - Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach

“An idea must not be condemned for being a little shy and incoherent; all new ideas are shy when introduced first among our old ones.” - Samuel Butler

Which quote do you like best?

Change of plans again

Today was supposed to be about ideas, but a couple friends independently stepped forward with some thoughtful gestures.  I know these people for different reasons and our interactions are with different frequencies.  Yet they took time to do something very nice.

“We do not belong to those who only get their thought from books, or at the prompting of books, -- it is our custom to think in the open air, walking, leaping, climbing, or dancing on lonesome mountains by preference, or close to the sea, where even the paths become thoughtful.” - Friedrich Nietzsche 

Have you thanked someone recently who did something thoughtful for you?

The last part is true

I was working on an idea for today's post and it started to grow larger than I had anticipated.  So today's post will now be tomorrow's post.  And today I leave you with an introspective comment.

“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.” - Oscar Wilde

Are you someone else?

Happy Birthday, Charles

It is Charles Dickens' birthday.  I've been looking through his quotes and surprised at how they have the same theme about justice.

“In the little world in which children have their existence, whosoever brings them up, there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt as injustice.” - Charles Dickens

Dust bunnies

I have some cleaning to do.  And no matter what, I'll need to clean.  It doesn't matter when or how, but it will need to be done.

“There is no Democratic or Republican way of cleaning the streets.” - Fiorello La Guardia

What do you have in your life that just needs to be cleaned?

A string on my finger

Yesterday I came up with a great idea for today's quote.  This morning, I promptly forgot what the idea was.

“A retentive memory may be a good thing, but the ability to forget is the true token of greatness.” - Elbert Hubbard

Has forgetting something ever worked towards your advantage?

Again and again

I have this condition that allows me to listen to the same song, over and over, for large amounts of time.  As I write this, I've had this one song going for at least 40 minutes.  Since it's a 4 minute song, 10 times is not that bad.  But I've gone a couple hours before with other songs.  Although today's quotes don't match this situation, they are about repeating.  You've seen me get on the fact that history repeats itself, even though we try not to.  These quotes are a different look at that.

“It is not worthwhile to try to keep history from repeating itself, for man's character will always make the preventing of the repetitions impossible” - Mark Twain

“Isn't it queer: there are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before; like the larks in this country that have been singing the same five notes over for thousands of years” - Willa Sibert Cather

Are you like a lark that has been repeating the same five notes?

Misquoting a misquote

Just a fun one today.  I started singing a song and my mind purposely put different words into it.  Maybe I shouldn't be singing at all.

“Silence is not only golden; it is seldom misquoted.” - Bob Monkhouse

Have you heard of someone's silence being misquoted?

You're mumbling again

I've heard that line a lot in life.  "You're mumbling, I can't understand you."  "What was that?"  "Can you repeat yourself please?"  I am a mumbler.  It's not always and it is mostly around people I am comfortable with.  I've been on stage, I've given presentations, I've lead meetings, all without a problem.  But if I'm on the couch next to you, I might as well be 100 miles away.  As I said, it's not always.  So when I do mumble, it tends to irritate those closest to me.  And it can be irritating to have that told to you often.  But beware if you try to tell a non-mumbler that they are mumbling.  They will vehemently disagree and tell you to clean your ears.  I have been told that more than once in my life and by much more than one person.  I do appreciate them sticking with me though and I try to correct myself when I know I'm doing it.  And since my mumbles have kicked into high gear lately, I thought I would dedicate a post to the opposite.  So today, we will be speaking clearly.  I enjoy the second quote for how it can be transferred to a speaker.

“Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes

“Those who write clearly have readers, those who write obscurely have commentators.” - Albert Camus
  
Do you speak clearly or are you a mumbler? Or perhaps I should ask, do you have readers or commentators?

And then the woman's hair caught fire

I had quite a bizarre dream last night.  Lots of imagery.  And yes, at one point a woman's hair caught fire and I put it out.  Although the fire didn't seem to do any damage and the woman didn't seem to notice.  Makes sense to do some quotes on dreams.  I have to say that finding sleep-dream inspired quotes are slightly hard.  So many "dream" quotes are inspirational about a person's waking dreams.  I was fortunate enough to find two quotes with slightly different outlooks on dreams.

“What if you slept? And what if, in your sleep, you dreamed? And what if, in your dream, you went to heaven and plucked a strange and beautiful flower? And what if, when you awoke, you had the flower in your hand? Ah, what then?" - Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“Dreams are nothing but incoherent ideas, occasioned by partial or imperfect sleep.” - Benjamin Rush

What do you think about dreams.  Are they powerful thoughts or something that gets in the way of sleep?

The end of the beginning

The last day of January is upon us.  Instead of the usual "that went so fast" or "where has the time gone" type comments, I wanted to concentrate on the month.  I've been enjoying finding two or more quotes that help expand the ideas behind these posts.  The first is just a fun one to help daydream and the second is a bit more introspective.  Although it was meant for the start of January, I think it is powerful to read and think about now.

“To read a poem in January is as lovely as to go for a walk in June” - Jean-Paul Sartre

“Every man should be born again on the first day of January. Start with a fresh page. Take up one hole more in the buckle if necessary, or let down one, according to circumstances; but on the first of January let every man gird himself once more, with his face to the front, and take no interest in the things that were and are past." - Henry Ward Beecher

So how has your January been?  Have you taken a walk in June or have you faced the front?

 

That tune in your head

There are times when music can get stuck in your head or can arouse a swell of emotions.  It can set the mood or alter it.  Music in one form or another is all around us.  Whether it be the sound of cars going by or the air vent in your office, a tune is being created.  And since I had a great soundtrack on the way to work today, the quotes below revolve around melody.

“Not every end is the goal. The end of a melody is not its goal; and yet: if a melody has not reached its end, it has not reached its goal. A parable.” - Friedrich Nietzsche, The Wanderer and His Shadow (1880)

“Life is like a beautiful melody, only the lyrics are messed up.” - Hans Christian Andersen

Is your melody helping towards your goal?  Do your lyrics match the music?

To your health

Some friends, co-workers and I have been fighting various illnesses this winter.  At the office, different cold strains seem to get passed around.  Sniffles, stomach bugs, headaches, sinus pressure, the usual winter ailments.  I know some people who will go to great lengths to stay healthy, and others that would rather enjoy life.  It made me wonder what some people in the past have noted about health.

"He had had much experience of physicians, and said "the only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you'd druther not." - Mark Twain, Following the Equator (1897)

“Anguish of mind has driven thousands to suicide; anguish of body, none. This proves that the health of the mind is of far more consequence to our happiness than the health of the body, although both are deserving of much more attention than either of them receive.” - Charles Caleb Colton

How much of illness do you think is just in your head?

See-food diet

While eating at a restaurant today, a woman nearby was holding a conversation with the man accompanying her, with her mouth full.  She was turning, looking around while talking so most of the restaurant could see what she was eating.  And therefore sparking today's quote about manners.  I found two that I think make good points.

“A man's manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait.” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Life is short, but there is always time enough for courtesy.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

What lack of manners have you done lately?

Catch-22?

Just a light, philosophical quote today.  Didn't want to make things too heavy going into the weekend.

"It is perfectly true, as the philosophers say, that life must be understood backwards. But they forget the other proposition, that it must be lived forwards." - Søren Kierkegaard, Journals and Papers, (1843)

Do you understand more of your past as you go forward?

Always have a backup

I had an event happen to me this morning that I planned to write about with a quote to go along with it.  I couldn't find the right term to characterize what happened.  I thought I did, but the quotes weren't coming up to match.  So I'm falling back on one of my favorite "authors."  He's really a cartoonist.  If you don't recognize his name, go ahead and do some research.  His work can be taken at what ever depth level you want to take it at.

"We're not really taught how to recreate constructively. We need to do more than find diversions; we need to restore and expand ourselves. Our idea of relaxing is all too often to plop down in front of the television set and let its pandering idiocy liquefy our brains. Shutting off the thought process is not rejuvenating; the mind is like a car battery— it recharges by running." - Bill Watterson, Kenyon College Commencement Address (1990)

How do you relax?

All a man has

Sparked from yesterday's quotes, I wanted to do a day on laughter.  Sometimes it does seem to be all a person has and I've seen it turn people's days around.  While hearing people laugh at you can be hurtful, a joyful laugh by yourself can create wonders.  If anything, I hope you get a smile from these, if not a laugh.

“The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.” - E. E. Cummings

“Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter can be said to remedy anything.” - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

“The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.” - Mark Twain

“Laughter is an interior convulsion, producing a distortion of the features and accompanied by inarticulate noises. It is infectious and, though intermittent, incurable.” - Ambrose Bierce

 When is a time you laughed so hard that your stomach hurt?

Turn one into another

The anger and frustration of some friends is still going on, so today's quote was going to be about frustration.  But after I found the first quote, I thought I'd make this into a transition post.  From frustration to laughter.  From anger to joy.  From cold to warm.

“Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning to do afterward.” - Kurt Vonnegut

“Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face.” - Victor Hugo

Have you recently had an experience where laughter turned your feelings around?

What uncertainty breeds

I've been around a fair amount of people lately who have a lot of uncertainty in their work.  People who don't seem to know anything get promoted while the people who believe their talents are being wasted look to leave their company.  What I've noticed while talking to these people is that a lot of anger is bred from the unknown.  Anger against co-workers.  Anger against bosses.  Anger at little things.  So today I tried to find a few quotes on anger that looked at it from different angles.  The three below are also in chronological order based on the time the author lived.

“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.” - Buddha

“There was never an angry man that thought his anger unjust” - St. Francis de Sales

“Anger is a great force. If you control it, it can be transmuted into a power which can move the whole world.” - William Shenstone

Do you gravitate towards one of these quotes most?

Not ego-centric

I believe this is the earliest quote I have found to date about learning from the past. Cicero lived 106BC - 43BC. I did not mean for this project to focus so much on repeating the past or learning. But I'm excited to find these and from such different times.

“To be ignorant of what happened before you were born is to be ever a child. For what is man's lifetime unless the memory of past events is woven with those of earlier times?” - Marcus Tullius Cicero

What have you learned from the past that will help you in the future?

Tie, not loafers

Didn't think I'd repeat Mark Twain so soon, but I like this one.  A friend is shopping for shoes, and I enjoyed this visual.

“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes” - Mark Twain

What lies can you think of that have spread and been hard to retract?

Olde

I'm seeing an old friend tonight.

“Old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.” - Francis Bacon

Have you been in touch with any old friends lately?

Nevermore

I think it was in middle school when I was introduced to Edgar Allan Poe.  He has stuck as a favorite author of mine since then.  Today would have been his 203rd birthday, so today's quotes are from him.  Three quotes for the three roses the Poe Toaster would have left on his grave.  The contrast between the tones in the first and last quotes are just a glimmer of the pain he said he felt through the end years of his life.

"I shall remain in Philadelphia perhaps for a year — but Richmond is my home, and a letter directed to that city will always reach me, in whatever part of the world I may be. " - Edgar Allan Poe, in a letter to George Washington Poe (1839)

"If you wish to forget anything on the spot, make a note that this thing is to be remembered." - Edgar Allan Poe, "Marginalia" in Democratic Review (1844)

"I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity." - Edgar Allan Poe, in a letter to George W. Eveleth (1848)

Remake the remake

Today's quote was picked for two reasons.  One, with all the news about the cruise shipping running aground in Italy, I wanted to find an Italian author. And two, with all the remakes Hollywood and other art institutions keep creating, I wanted to find a quote that showed frustration there.  I did not expect to find something from a poet who wrote in the early part of the 1800's.

“There are some centuries which - apart from everything else - in the art and other disciplines presume to remake everything because they know how to make nothing.” - Giacomo Leopardi

What remakes have you heard about or seen that you cannot believe?

Murky water

The ego, or "I," is an amazing thing/word. It gives power and takes it away. It forms unions and creates catastrophes. It is the foundation for understanding and miscommunication. Although the quote below is from a letter helping to describe a play, I think it pointedly depicts the cause of numerous issues in everyday life.

"There are no 'good' or 'bad' people. Some are a little better or a little worse but all are activated more by misunderstanding than malice. A blindness to what is going on in each other’s hearts... Nobody sees anybody truly, but all through the flaws of their own ego. That is the way we all see each other in life. Vanity, fear, desire, competition – all such distortions within our own egos – condition our vision of those in relation to us. Add to those distortions in our own egos, the corresponding distortions in the egos of the others – and you see how cloudy the glass must become through which we look at each other. That’s how it is in all living relationships except when there is that rare case of two people who love intensely enough to burn through all those layers of opacity and see each others naked hearts. Such a case seems purely theoretical to me." - Tennessee Williams, in a letter to Elia Kazan (1947)

How cloudy does your ego make you glass?

All in a name

With it being Martin Luther King, Jr. day in the United States, I figured a quote of his and a quote from Martin Luther were in order. I was surprised to find two that seemed so opposite to me.

"Blood alone moves the wheels of history." - Martin Luther

“Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.

Which one do you believe?

Slay time

No theme today. Just a great quote by Faulkner.

"Clocks slay time... time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life." - William Faulkner

Have you wielded your power of time lately?

Garbage

It was garbage day yesterday and plenty of houses were throwing out their Christmas trees.  Made me think of what other people consider trash.  And I mean beyond the whole "other man's treasure" idea.  I found this one instance from George Orwell.

"Prolonged, indiscriminate reviewing of books is a quite exceptionally thankless, irritating and exhausting job. It not only involves praising trash but constantly inventing reactions towards books about which one has no spontaneous feeling whatever." - George Orwell Confessions of a Book Reviewer (1946)

What was in your garbage this week?

Cycling through the past

Of all the movies I can remember that bring historical figures into the current time, the people from the past are always amazed at current technology.  And the movies tend to poke fun at that.  But going through quotes from all time, I'm amazed at how similar everyday thought is.  I've noted before how we seem to keep repeating ourselves (even though we try not to repeat the past).  Today's quote reminds me of that again.  It is also inspired by today's date...Friday the 13th.

"Superstition is a part of the very being of humanity; and when we fancy that we are banishing it altogether, it takes refuge in the strangest nooks and corners, and then suddenly comes forth again, as soon as it believes itself at all safe." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe (1819)

 Two questions today.  What are you superstitious about? Do you see yourself repeating your past?

Something catchy

One of the quotes I found for yesterday's post was by Alfred North Whitehead.  I'll leave out the details, but at least point you to information on him at wikipedia.

I know and have worked with a good amount of entrepreneurs.  Most, if not all, tell people who want to start a business or create a product that they will fail at some point, but that they have to learn from it and keep moving forward.  I think the quote below is the most succinct way of putting that, and it involves all aspects of the world, not just business and innovation.

"Error is the price we pay for progress." - Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology (1929)

What errors have you recently made that have helped you make progress?

Zero, zilch, nada

My personal inbox reached zero (0) today for the first time in at least two years.  I'm really not joking.  At one point I was up to 1,000 unread emails.  It started when I was laid off and I was looking for a new job.  I started to signup for various groups and job searches.  Then I started to research things and send articles to myself so I would read them later... which I never did.  So today I have clean everything out.  If I have not read it, but want to, it has been tagged "to read" so I will one day get back to it.  Maybe that will be my next challenge.  For now, here are a couple quotes about "zero."

“When one's expectations are reduced to zero, one really appreciates everything one does have.” - Stephen Hawking

"The point about zero is that we do not need to use it in the operations of daily life. No one goes out to buy zero fish. It is in a way the most civilized of all the cardinals, and its use is only forced on us by the needs of cultivated modes of thought." - Alfred North Whitehead

How often do you reference the number zero?

The machine walking in front of me

On my walk to work this morning I saw a woman swinging her arm with extreme precision.  Each swing matched the previous.  She was walking as if it were a predefined motion.  It made me think about machines making precise movements.  I could not find an quote to fit my exact thoughts, so I found two of interest instead.

"No one knows where he who invented the plow was born, nor where he died; yet he has done more for humanity than the whole race of heroes who have drenched the earth with blood and whose deeds have been handed down with a precision proportionate only.” - Charles Caleb Colton

"The tendency of philosophers who know nothing of machinery is to talk of man as a mere mechanism, intending by this to imply that he is without purpose. This shows a lack of understanding of machines as well as of man. " - Arthur Young

Swift judgement

For how much we try to keep history from repeating itself, I find it amusing to see what we consider history not worth repeating versus human nature.

"This evil fortune, which generally attends extraordinary men in the management of great affairs, has been imputed to divers causes, that need not be here set down, when so obvious a one occurs, if what a certain writer observes be true, that when a great genius appears in the world the dunces are all in confederacy against him." - Jonathan Swift, Essay on the Fates of Clergymen (1728)

The confusion of time

Some think that time is imaginary.  Some think time can bend.  Time seems to act differently in different places and for different people.

"I once spent a year in Philadelphia, I think it was on a Sunday." - W. C. Fields

Ever have a day that went by fast or seemed to take forever?

Lounging

I wonder what range of quotes about lounging or relaxing I could find.  I realized "chillin" was not a word often used in the great past.
“Reading and sauntering and lounging and dosing, which I call thinking, is my supreme Happiness.” - David Hume 1767
What do you consider to be Happiness?

Work, work, work

Three co-workers left today. One on his own accord. One was given two months notice. The last was just told this morning.  To go with that, I'm posting three quotes about work from three different times.
“What nobler employment, or more valuable to the state, than that of the man who instructs the rising generation?” - Marcus Tullius Cicero
“Avoid idleness, and fill up all the spaces of thy time with severe and useful employment: for lust easily creeps in at those emptinesses where the soul is unemployed and the body is at ease; no easy, healthful, idle person was ever chaste if he could” - Jeremy Taylor
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas A. Edison
Do any of these match your thoughts for work?

Talking with the past

It's been suggested that I start to read before bed.  Years ago its something I used to do and was a nice way to wind down at night.  I stopped because I wasn't paying attention anymore to what I was reading.  After reading the quote below, maybe I was reading the wrong types of books.

"The reading of all good books is indeed like a conversation with the noblest men of past centuries who were the authors of them, nay a carefully studied conversation, in which they reveal to us none but the best of their thoughts." - Rene Descartes

What conversations have you had recently with your books?

Fire from the heavens

There was a meteor shower early this morning. I was awake late at night, but the light pollution from the city kept me from seeing anything.
I did find this quote though.

“Great men are meteors designed to burn so that earth may be lighted.” ― Napoleon Bonaparte

Do you think earth basks in the glow of great men?

Note: I saw a version of this quote where "men" was changed to "people."  I'm trying to keep with the original translations and not make them politically correct. 

A special birthday

It is a close family member's birthday today.  In her honor I decided to go with a birthday related quote.  I also think this quote has an intriguing outlook.

"We advance in years somewhat in the manner of an invading army in a barren land; the age that we have reached, as the saying goes, we but hold with an outpost, and still keep open communications with the extreme rear and first beginnings of the march." - Robert Louis Stevenson, "Virginibus Puerisque II," Virginibus Puerisque, 1881

Have any of your communication outposts gone down?

Science on the brain

A few thoughts about science popped in my brain today, so I let that steer this post.  While I wanted to find one about the periodic table, I found this to be quite poignant.

"Science is built up of facts, as a house is built of stones; but an accumulation of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house." ~Henri Poincaré, Science and Hypothesis,1905

Quotes to ponder

My last few attempts to complete a 9 week challenge have not unfolded as I would have liked.  Due to that,  I'm going to dial back my grand aspirations for a little while.  I'm also going to hide my old posts for now.  This round I'm going to post some quotes that may force you to ponder the world.  Some quotes will relate to the day (as today's does), will be ones I think fit the world's events or they just open my eyes.

Today's quote interests me because of its timelessness.  It is 149 years old, but still holds true.

"New Year's Day--Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. Yesterday, everybody smoked his last cigar, took his last drink, and swore his last oath. Today, we are a pious and exemplary community. Thirty days from now, we shall have cast our reformation to the winds and gone to cutting our ancient shortcomings considerably shorter than ever. We shall also reflect pleasantly upon how we did the same old thing last year about this time. However, go in, community. New Year's is a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to anybody save as a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks, and friendly calls, and humbug resolutions, and we wish you to enjoy it with a looseness suited to the greatness of the occasion."
 - Mark Twain, Letter to Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, January 1863 

Have you made a resolution this year that you know you're not going to keep?